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Tom's Hardware tested Googlebooks from Dell, Lenovo and HP, built on a new operating system called Googlebook OS that resembles Android more than Chrome OS. The platform aims to merge Android phones and laptops and includes AI features such as Rambler, with Acer and Asus also signed on as hardware partners. The reviewer found the hardware solid but said the OS still feels underdeveloped and centered mainly on the web browser.
Opera has released an update to its Air browser adding new wellness-focused features, including four-mode ambient music tracks (Focus, Relax, Work, Ambience), scheduled breathing exercise prompts, and guided neck stretches. The update also brings new nature-themed wallpapers, an automatic dark mode, and retains the built-in ad blocker and free VPN from the original version launched in early 2025. Opera Air remains free on Windows and macOS.
WhatsApp now lets people join 1:1 or group calls through a browser without owning a WhatsApp account, via a new guest calling feature. Guests must be invited and approved by the host, cannot start calls, send messages, view phone numbers or add participants, but can use screen sharing, hand-raising and emoji reactions with no time limit. Meta also said a calendar-integration plugin for Google and Outlook is coming later this year.
WhatsApp has rolled out a guest calling feature that lets users invite people to a call without requiring them to have a WhatsApp account, by sending a call link that works in a browser. Guests get access to features like screen sharing, hand raising, and emoji reactions under end-to-end encryption, but must wait for host approval and can't see other participants' phone numbers or add others to the call. Meta says Google and Outlook calendar integrations for WhatsApp calls are coming later this year via a plugin.
At its Welcome Home event in New York, Apple demonstrated HomeView, a smart home interface that manages devices entirely through the Apple Home app, without requiring separate third-party apps for setup or control. A CNET reporter watched an Apple representative pair and register a new smart home device on both a phone and the HomeView display in real time.
Google has outlined how Gemini Spark, an always-on AI agent available to Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers, can run tasks in the background even when a user's devices are off. Capabilities include summarizing a week's worth of emails, building to-do lists, and automatically adding appointments to a calendar, provided users enable connections to Gmail, Calendar and Drive, which are off by default. Google states Spark checks with users before taking major actions, and notes some features may not be available in all regions.
Milepost is an indie iOS, Mac and CarPlay app that automatically logs drives—route, distance, speed, time and weather—and lets users add notes, photos and Apple Music history to build shareable 'roadbooks.' It includes a social network for sharing trips and cars, Siri/Shortcuts/CarPlay support, and an MCP server for trip planning with AI agents.
Amazon has manufactured its 1,000th Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) satellite at its Kirkland, Washington factory, which it built from an empty building into a production facility in roughly 15 months. Company executive Paul Palcisco said Amazon builds and tests each satellite in a matter of weeks, with the propulsion system developed entirely in-house while other components are sourced externally. Amazon says commercial service rollout is now only weeks away.
Cleo, a user on Math.SE, successfully derived a closed-form solution for a challenging integral that had stumped others, expressing it in terms of the golden ratio. Her answer was posted shortly after another user’s detailed contour integral solution, but lacked supporting proof. The community questioned the answer’s completeness due to the absence of detailed derivation.
Google began selling its first Googlebook laptops on October 4th, and The Verge received review units of all five models about a day later. The devices resemble Chromebooks but add new ways to link an Android phone to the laptop, including casting apps, moving tasks between devices, and accessing phone files and notifications directly from the laptop.
A developer introduces ephemeral testing, a new approach where AI builds and tests temporary software layers on top of existing code, which are discarded after evaluation. This process emphasizes assessing the quality of the integrated system rather than the original code directly. The method relies on stable, well-documented libraries to produce meaningful feedback through failures and patches.
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Spaces, a shared workspace where colleagues, ChatGPT and new AI agents called Dots can access common files and generated content. The company also unveiled a meeting-notes plugin, Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations, and document tools called Pages, alongside a data-protection system called Private Intelligence.